Amazon Ships 8 Plates In 13 Boxes

By Ben PopkenAugust 26, 2008

Reader Gibson ordered 8 plates from Amazon, and they arrived in 13 boxes. We’re sure the operations research management scientists at Amazon shipping have an answer as to why, in the context of the entire shipping infrastructure, this was the most cost-effective solution, but it escapes us mere mortals. Full pic inside.

I wish amazon had shipped my dishware like this. I have to return a set of plates that arrived yesterday because one came shattered. It was in just a single box with the air packs around the sides, but no protection on top or bottom.

I’m thinking that two of the small boxes went into one large box, creating 13 total boxes. When you ship something fragile, it’s usually a good idea to do large box + packing + small box + packing + item.

Plates are highly breakable, especially if they collide with each other. It’s cheaper to spend pennies on extra paper/cardboard products than to spend a few (not knowing how much the plate costs them) dollars on new plates AND new shipping.

Now the other stories about batteries or pieces of paper being shipped 1-piece-per-box… that’s crazy. But this? Not crazy.

Were these ordered using the “Group my items into as few shipments as possible” option or the “I want my items faster. Ship items as they become available” one?

I was just mulling this over last night when I got 6 separate emails from Amazon to let me know that some books and DVDs I ordered had been shipped out in 6 separate shipments (and iirc 4 shipments had 1 item each). I often order multiple things at once and I like to pre-order things so I usually use the multiple shipment option, but I was starting to reconsider when I saw how it carved up a single order for multiple available items.

In this case, if the OP ordered 8 separate dishes and picked the send them fast option, I could see how they might get packaged strangely. It is wasteful, but without knowing what option the OP chose, I can’t put all the blame on Amazon (i.e. they do have an option that says send as few shipments as possible). Speaking from experience, I know that in the past Amazon has actually held an order for over a month just to send it in one shipment (as I selected) when something was backordered, so there are options when you want to be less wasteful ordering through Amazon (I was pleased to see that they moved to using padded mailers instead of boxes for sending out single books and DVDs lately)

1. I chose “free shipping” (not I want my items faster) and all the boxes shipped on the same day – each plate was in an individual box with a sticker “Amazon Ready to Ship” – and those boxes were in bigger boxes

2. Double boxing plates is a great idea – but you can put more than 1 plate into each interior box and still not have them break (I just moved from VA to OR and didn’t break a single plate and had up to 10 in a box)….

3. I recycled the boxes on craigslist

4. I emailed Amazon and they responded with a form email about their programs to ‘conserve resources and reduce our impact on the environment’

@hillsrovey: I can tell you from experience that “ready to ship” stickers means that’s how they are sitting on the shelf. I order Cliff and Power Bars through Amazon sometimes, and each retail box has one of those stickers on it, taped over the perforation so it’s won’t open in transit. So the shipping dept and the pullers have no control about that packaging. BTW, what was written on the bottom of the invoices? There is usually a two digit letter/number code which correlates to what box they are supposed to pack them in.

@jeffs3rd: I should add, our local UPS depot has a 15ft straight down drop from one conveyor to another going outbound (one of our shipping employees used to work there in management). Even with regular packing materials in a single box, LCD panels are fragile enough that they would break.

I really don’t trust UPS and fedex to get my package there ontime and unbroken.

I really feel sorry for some of these companies when stories like this run, because the exact opposite will happened if they had only used 1 box and the plates came broken. People would be complaining that it should have been better boxed as opposed to there be too many boxes.

I for one, would prefer that they use more materials so that the plates come unbroken the 1st time around. What is more wasteful, you sending them back and forth, or using the extra material to ensure that it does not happen.

I still really like Amazon – got the plates for less than half the retail – I just would have preferred to have 4 boxes – 2 boxes with 4 plates each, double packed inside 2 larger boxes – the packing would have been just as protective, and much, much, less wasteful. Even if it meant paying extra for shipping, I would have done so.

Bottom line is, you can pack more than 1 plate in each box and have them be secure. This is just a time saver – cost cutter “Ready to Ship” program that Amazon has – that consequently is a total waste of resources.

I order from Amazon all the time and they never send my stuff in separate boxes. But Staples Corporate online does it all the time. I need to bring my digital camera to work sometime and post a pic. They’re hilarious.

Given the number of dishes and glassware that I’ve gotten from Amazon, broken, I really have to agree with the sentiments here that this was likely intentional and not a stupid shipping gang issue. The extra boxes and packing material are pennies each, the cost of an RMA for them (return shipping, customer service calls, replacement item, more boxes) is a lot larger.

Yeah, we order 100 reams of copy paper at a time too. This one brand has plain brown boxes with handle cutouts. Me and another coworker fight over them. I like to put stuff in them in my garage. He likes to use them to carry firewood.